Back to the holiday posts again. I’m determined to finish these, despite the fact that this trip was during July! Small personal goals and all that. On day five we rented a car (the most ridiculously cute one ever, might I add) and set off for Segovia to see some handsome aqueducts.
We rented a Fiat 500. So cute, so teeny and mega stylish. It fares well on the motorway with unexpected horsepower and was a joy to drive. Things beep when you go over the speed limit, which I’ll admit was quite often for me.
Many, many Disney songs and nearly two hours later, we arrived in Segovia. It was crazy hot..a lot warmer than Salamanca was when we left it.
The aqueducts of Segovia are amazing; so carefully and beautifully preserved. Two tiers of impressive Roman construction, said to have been built around A.D. 50. Beyond impressive considering Mr. aqueduct’s old age really.
Hungry from an early start and car journey, we walked downhill alongside the aqueduct to find somewhere to fuel ourselves for a walk around the city. We sat on the terrace of a restaurant along Calle Fernandez Ladreda; embarrassingly the name escapes me.
I forgot to take a note of the name as we actually stopped there originally to have a drink in the sun and look up a few places to eat. However when the waitress brought us a small plate of ridiculously delicious things we felt like sticking around to see what else they could wow us with. Pretty soon we had ordered a couple of raciones to share, and we were brought some deep fried prawns and calamari with our next round drinks. Lots of tiny surprise treats..my kind of place.
We shared a plate of juicy red peppers folded neatly like blankets over creamy goat’s cheese drizzled with honey.
Gambas al ajillo – prawns and garlic sizzling in olive oil…
and the most incredible croquetas I have ever had. Some were ham, some were mushroom..this was easily my favourite dish out of the three, if I really had to choose.
We lingered over everything for a while, enjoying the weather and reapplying suncream to our collectively pale and stereotypically Irish skin. Rested and refreshed, we were offered a shot of white chocolate liqueur to finish our meal. It tasted just like Coole Swan, which was amazing of course because I freaking love that stuff.
I would definitely recommend this seemingly mysterious nameless restaurant (sorry about that) for really excellent high quality dishes. I tried to find the name by creeping on Google maps, but no dice. All I can say is that it’s one of the first restaurants on the right side on Calle Fernandez Ladreda; the aqueducts will be behind you. If in doubt, maybe look for the above tablecloth design…? You’ll feel like a detective.
Post lunch we climbed the steps beside the aqueduct to get a better look and admire the view. There were people sitting with their legs hanging over the edge of the wall where I stood to take the above pictures. My God…I feel queasy just typing that! Why people have to stick their limbs out at perilous heights I will never know.
After our fair share of aqueduct staring we were ready for the cathedral (I love me a good epic church) and the Alcázar of Segovia. Their faces say it all really; Segovia has some really cool stuff.
Segovia’s cathedral was the last Gothic cathedral built in Spain. There are a lot of renovations going on at the moment so I did my best to conceal those ugly bits. I really like Segovia’s square, it reminds me a lot of Pamplona with all the different styles of buildings. It even has a bandstand, as does Pamplona. They’re so similar, and then u look up and see a mega cathedral and remember where you are!
The Alcázar de Segovia is a very short walk from the cathedral. Its said to be Spain’s most famous castle because of the fairytale vibes. My little sister commented that she thought it looked like Hogwarts, and apparently Walt Disney himself was pretty enamoured by the whimsical architecture, which inspired the design of Cinderella’s castle at the theme parks.
The castle was originally a royal court and then a state prison. A castle, filled with villains! I see why it gets the fairytale nod of approval.
More scary heights. I took this for the greenery mostly, which we didn’t see a whole lot of for the week.
We walked around the city for a couple of hours, then sat in a small park under the trees to take refuge in the shade before heading for Ávila. Niall and I spent some time there last year with friends and really liked it, and I wanted to show my sister the famous walls. I love visiting towns and cities in Spain to discover their most famous landmarks. I plan to have seen them all one day!
(A few shots from last years trip with wonderful people!)
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